It’s a misty, rainy Monday, but that’s ok. We really need the rain here. I know other parts of the country would gladly have it stop raining for a while. The month of May in Southwest Florida has been extremely dry, but it appears our rainy season has arrived.

Here are the rest of the photos from the weekend. The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron nest was down to 3 chicks, as expected. But, they are getting big!

One of the parents landed near the nest for feeding time.

The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron doesn’t put the food into the chick’s mouth. They regurgitate the food into the nest and its every chick for itself.

The Tri-Colored Heron never stood up so that we could see if the chicks had hatched. Maybe we will get a look into the nest next time.

The juvenile Anhinga below was sitting in the top of a tree nearby.

The juvenile Green Heron below was hard to see since it blended into the surroundings.

The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron chick below is from a different nest. It’s a bit older than the ones in the first nest.

A Yellow-Crowned Night Heron greeter at the Ding entrance.

Below is the first juvenile Wood Stork I’ve seen. The lighter beak indicates a juvenile. You never know what you will come across along Wildlife Drive.

And it was in good company.

Back at home, we watched a drama play out on our back deck. The snake below is either a Black Racer or a Black Rat Snake (I think it is a Black Racer, but does it really matter?) that was trying to find a frog that was hiding on the top of the post on the deck. The snake tracked the frog all over until it finally located it. Once the snake was close, the frog jumped across the top of the deck railing to the other end of the deck.

Nope, not on the chair.

Following the trail up the deck railing.

Checking every crack and crevice.

Meanwhile the frog sat very still and confident, but kept an eye on the snake.

Safe at the opposite end of the deck, the frog stayed in this exact position below for at least 3 hours before it got too dark to see it. The frog was gone the next morning, so we aren’t sure of its fate.